India's finance minister expects Tata Sons to settle issues amicably and internally (updated)

Tata Power

Mon 14:49

Adds comments in paragraph 3,4; background throughout
By Gopika Gopakumar
BENGALURU, Nov 2 (Reuters) - India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday she expected issues that have caused a rift between Tata Sons and its largest shareholder Tata Trusts to be settled amicably and soon within the group.
Tata Group, a salt-to-software conglomerate, has been in the news for months over internal divisions over the reappointment of Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran and whether the holding company should go public. 
The company's board has favoured listing, to comply with Reserve Bank of India rules, but controlling shareholder Tata Trusts has opposed it and sought alternatives.
Sitharaman, also India's corporate affairs minister, called the Tatas a critical part of the country's economy and said the issue has to be settled amicably to ensure a quick return to normalcy. It cannot spill out in public, she added at an event in Mumbai.
The Noel Tata-led Tata Trusts owns 66% of Tata Sons. It opposed the September reappointment of Chandrasekaran and has clashed with him over Air India's mounting losses and a planned exit by minority shareholder Shapoorji Pallonji Group, apart from the listing of the holding company.
Regulatory pressure, meanwhile, has intensified, with the central bank rejecting Tata Sons' application to deregister as a non-banking financial company, a decision that pushes it closer ​to a stock market listing.

 (Reporting by Gopika Gopakumar and Nishit Navin; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair and Joyjeet Das)
 ((Nishit.Navin@thomsonreuters.com;))